Why Business Blogging Is Like Internet Dating – How To Use SEO To Get More Views and Better Matches
Why Business Blogging Is Like Internet Dating – How To Use SEO To Get More Views and Better Matches
Contents
Hey there, hot stuff!
You’re looking good! I can see you’ve been working on your appearance. Is that a new outfit? I bet you’ve got loads of brilliant itineraries stashed up those stylish sleeves for wining and dining your next lucky companion.
In fact, you’ve got all the ingredients for a successful courtship ready and waiting to be unleashed on an unsuspecting single population… the only trouble is, none of them even know you exist.
You may have the goods, but if you want to actually land a date, you have to put yourself out there, right? In online dating terms, you have to create a profile, go looking for potential matches, and follow them up. Otherwise, you’re doomed to sit at home waiting for a phone that never rings.
The same goes for business blogging. You may have a snazzy website, catchy headlines and the wittiest advice your customers could ever ask for – but the best content in the world, no matter how eloquent its phrasing or ironclad its logic, is entirely useless if no one ever finds it.
And that’s where SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, comes in. It’s all the weird, technical stuff that goes on behind the scenes so that search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing will not only find your page when someone enters a search query, but rank it highly enough on the page so that the searcher will actually see it.
It’s a vast and ever-expanding space full of acronyms and technical terms, almost all of which are completely unintelligible to the uninitiated (and sometimes also to the initiated). Fortunately, as a small business owner, you don’t have to understand it for it to work – it’s enough for you just to know what to do. If you do it with enough consistency, over time you’ll start appearing on more feeds, get more engagement and ultimately bring in more – and better – matches for your business.
Photo by Vadim Bogulov on Unsplash
Why You Need a Business Blog
There are two main reasons why your site should have a blog. First, because it helps your customers. It gives them information they need in a place where they can easily find it, establishes your expertise in your chosen industry, and helps build trust. People love to think that you’re giving them something for free without any ulterior motives – it’s like buying a drink for someone without expecting anything to happen afterwards. You have to play a long game, but at least you get painted as the good guy.
The second is because it’s good for your website overall. If Google (and the other search engines) can see that you’re providing relevant and useful information, it will boost your page up the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), and more people will be able to view your site; at the same time, the more people who view and spend time on your site, the more the search engines will boost your ranking. It creates a positive cycle and keeps you and your business firmly in your customers’ minds. It takes time – this is no fleeting affair or one night stand – but if you persist, you can build a steady, long-term and satisfying relationship with your customers – you might even get introduced to their friends and family as well!
So, if you’re ready to dive in to the world of business blogging SEO, here’s what you should do:
1. Find Out What They Want (aka It’s Not About You)
In the same way an optimistic singleton opens a dating app and selects the traits and demographics they’re looking for in a mate, your potential clients start their internet search by typing in what they want to know. Your first job, therefore, is to find out what that is so you can give it to them. You can do that by running surveys or polls, using Google Analytics or simply by asking them directly.
Once you’ve done that, make a plan to address their problems via your content. Sure, you can throw in some things you think they need to know, but first you have to prove you’ve been listening by giving relevant answers to their questions. Otherwise, they’ll feel like they’ve been set up with someone who only talks about themselves, and they'll be gone before you can say ‘swipe left’.
2. Try to Stand Out (aka Scope Out the Competition)
Self-improvement gurus are always telling us to be ourselves, right? After all, nobody else can offer your particular gifts and talents (or in this case, your products and services). Having said that, it does no harm to find out what the competition’s doing – and for a blog, it’s absolutely essential – so you can find a way to differentiate yourself and make sure your offerings stand out. If your content looks the same as everyone else’s, you’ll only get lost in a crowd of endless results pages.
It's also okay to steal moves from your online opponents, especially if you have a similar target audience – just make sure your content is unique. And once you’ve been working on it for a while, you’ll be able to analyse the results of your own blog (Google Analytics is a pretty handy tool for this). Take a good look at which methods work, which are worth using again, and which ones got you a slap in the face. Like any modern-day computing Casanova, you should always be ready to switch tactics when necessary!
3. Use Relevant Keywords (aka Work on Your Pick-up Lines)
Now you know what your potential customers want and you’ve figured out how to give it to them, you need to get their attention with targeted keywords. These are words, phrases or questions inserted naturally in your text that help search engines match your content with user queries. They help boost organic rankings, bring the right people to your page and ensure that, when your people do arrive, they have a better user experience.
Tools like Semrush, Ahrefs or even Google’s Keyword Planner can help you choose relevant keywords by showing you how your clients’ queries and questions rate compared to others. You can also run your own search on the topic, and see what comes up in the ‘people also ask’ and ‘related searches’ sections. Once you’ve chosen a few, scatter them through your copy and only repeat one or two that you want to be the most competitive for. Don’t be obvious or obnoxious about it – as anyone who’s been on the receiving end of a bad pick-up line will tell you, this tactic almost never works, and it’ll damage your reputation to boot.
4. Add Your Metadata (aka It’s All About the Algorithm)
When you enter your information and preferences into a dating app, it’s run through a series of formulas (known as algorithms) to match you with likely looking suitors. This helps narrow down your options and saves you having to scroll through every mediocre match in order to find the good ones. Similarly, the metadata on your site (that’s all the weird coding stuff) helps your page appear to the people who actually want to read it.
This includes things like the page title, description, image names and captions, headings, subheadings and your URL. Try and get your keywords into as many of these as possible, and keep your heading and page descriptions nice and short. You can also add internal links – that’s links to other pages on your site – and external links to relevant outside sources. As your online authority grows, other pages may start linking back to you, which will boost your rankings exponentially. Be warned however – you should never pay for this sort of favour. Google will always find out, and like a jealous lover will punish you most severely.
5. Make it Easy (aka Don’t Play Hard to Get)
Most people consume content on the go these days, so it’s safe to assume a lot of your customers will be reading on mobile devices and tablets. This usually starts with a quick visual scan of the goods, so make sure it’s easy on the eye by using subheadings, paragraph breaks, portrait oriented images and bullet points – having long sections of unbroken text is mobile content’s ultimate turn-off. If it’s on the lengthy side (more than 1500 words or so), consider adding a ‘contents’ list to the top of the page, so your readers can get straight to what they want.
People also love to brag about a good experience, so add widgets (they’re the little buttons on the side) for them to share your page on social media. Make sure, also, that the page doesn’t take too long to load – keep your images small and remove any unnecessary pop-ups or banners. (You can also do a site audit to identify any potential problems.) Once people click on your page you’ve got about ten seconds to create a good impression, so don’t make them wait or they’ll be out of there faster than a bored date escaping from a bathroom window.
6. Be Committed (aka They Know You Know How To Use a Phone)
So, you’ve been out for dinner, had an awesome time, and when you said goodnight your date dropped a big hint about how much they’d love to see you again. You’d be mad not to call back in a day or two, right? Writing one amazing blog post without following it up with any more is just as bad. You’ve given them a taste of your brilliance, left them wanting more, and ghosted them in one fell swoop.
To avoid this, you need to post regularly and consistently. Once a week is a good benchmark, but if you’re struggling for ideas or time then a couple per month will do to start with. You should also be consistent with style, tone, length and structure – make them all look and feel the same, or your potential partners will start to wonder if you’re suffering from multiple personalities. Be honest and reliable, otherwise you may find yourself being ditched for your better-looking (and annoyingly smug) competitors.
7. Bring in a Professional (aka Hire a Wingman)
Sometimes, you just can’t do everything yourself, and like dating, there’s much more to writing a blog than simply sprucing yourself up and hoping someone will notice. And in the same way that you might enlist a dating coach to tweak your profile and help show off your best assets, there’s nothing wrong with calling in an expert if you don’t have the time, skills or technical know-how to write and publish a blog yourself.
Not only can it be more economical than hiring in a new team member, you know you’ll be getting somebody who’s already an expert in what they’re doing. Whether you need help for part or all of the process, having someone take care of your blog for you means you’re free to concentrate on what you do best, whatever that may be. And unlike when you’re dating, that means you get to enjoy maximum results for minimum effort!
Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
Stand Out from the Crowd With Business Blogging SEO
Imagine you’re sitting in a trendy new bar, in a fabulous new outfit, and not a hair out of place. You’re oozing confidence, and look simply dazzling in the soft golden light – everyone around you pales in comparison.
A stranger approaches – you’ve never met in person before, but there’s something familiar about them. They have similar interests to you. You share the same values. You look great together. And, most importantly, they want what you have to offer.
Coincidence?
Possibly.
Though in reality, it’s probably because you put yourself out there, told them where to find you and then made sure you were there, in the right place at the right time. You advertised your availability, and made yourself stand out. You put a lot of effort into how you look, but also offered something more substantial and real – something that they needed.
With business blogging, the principle is exactly the same. You have to look good, be different from the competition and make yourself easy to find. But above all, and before you do anything else, you have to give them what they want.
If you do, you’ll not only bring in more traffic to your website, but you’ll bring in the right traffic, and that’s what raises your bottom line. It’s a long game – like any great romance, these things can’t be rushed – but if you play your cards right, and are prepared to change and adjust your moves as you go, you can master the art of SEO seduction and get your happily ever after in the end.
